IT'S KNOWN FOR THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS... ... BEAUTY... AND A PLACE CALLED... BILTMORE. BUT THESE DAYS... ASHEVILLE'S LOCAL FOOD AND BEER CULTURE... IS BECOMING A TOURIST ATTRACTION TOO. AS GABRIELLE KOMOROWSKI REPORTS... DOWNTOWN ASHEVILLE... HAS AN URBAN SOPHISTICATION... ALL ITS OWN. THERE'S THE QUIET OF THE MOUNTAINS... BIG MUSIC UP!!! ... AND THE BEAT... ON THE STREET... take music nats... ... AROUND NEARLY EVERY CORNER IN DOWNTOWN ASHEVILLE... .... YOU'LL FIND A PIECE... 01.35.02 there it is, jerry garcia... playing the guitar...04 .... OF THE CITY'S UNDENIABLE QUIRKINESS.... CLIP 2 DISC 3: KEN COWDEN: 01.33.20 people that are weird from everywhere else can just come here and be as weird as they want... yeah 24 ... THESE OLD BUILDINGS ARE A REMINDER OF... THE RICH HISTORY... OF A CITY... THAT ATTRACTED IMMIGRANTS... FROM SCOTLAND... AND IRELAND. 09.31 they brought their independent thinking with them, they were not very interested in government, not very interested in authority 37 ASHEVILLE HISTORIAN JOHN TURK MET US... AT THE SMITH-MCDOWELL HOUSE... BUILT IN THE 1840'S... 00.58 this is the oldest house in asheville, 01.00 IN THE DECADES THAT FOLLOWED THIS HOME'S CONSTRUCTION, TURK SAYS THE COUNTRY'S ELITE.. BROUGHT THEIR RICHES TO WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA... ... AND BUILT THE GROVE PARK INN... ... AND THE BILTMORE ESTATE. AND DOWNTOWN.... MAJOR DEPARTMENT STORES... LIKE BELK'S... AND PENNEY'S... WERE FIXTURES... show our old pictures with these dept. stores ... BUT TURK SAYS... OVER TIME... THAT GROWTH... STOPPED..... 06.12 they started building the big suburban malls, and all of the department stores downtown all moved out to the malls, the restaurants followed them on the way out 21 BACK TO BACK SOTS... COVER WITH VIDEO... 05.54 you walk around asheville today and you can't imagine just 15 years ago, most of the town was boarded up 01 WHAT CHANGED?..... TOURISM! 06.44 i think the fact that the biltmore estate started attracting more and more people 47 BACK TO BACK SOTS... COVER WITH VIDEO... 05.51 now we're in sort of a second golden age in the history of asheville ACCORDING TO THE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU... APPROXIMATELY 9-POINT-1 MILLION PEOPLE VISIT ASHEVILLE EACH YEAR... 01.14.22 they showed a lot of people they were bicycling and they were looking at holistic living and organic and just being friendly and i said wow i'd like to see what this is looking like 30 oh asheville food tours is an exciting way to see downtown asheville CHRIS ORTWEIN ort-wine STARTED ASHEVILLE FOOD TOURS... ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO... 46.25 what asheville does is they have a really neat strong culinary scene that's all local, very local, and they embrace that whole concept 33 MOST OF CHRIS'S CUSTOMERS... ARE TOURISTS: SOME OF THESE VISITORS... DECIDE TO STAY.... 01.10.55 I am hopefully testing out the waters for someplace to retire 59 STANDUP DISC 4 CLIP 55 01.19.22 asheville is in the middle of a population boom. it's gone up by at least 15 percent just since the year 2000... according to census data. And the population now stands at over 85-thousand 01.19.33 ok up here we have american craft beers BREWERIES... CALL ASHEVILLE HOME TOO. ITS NICKNAME IS "BEER CITY USA" ...FOR ASHEVILLES 18 CRAFT BREWERIES.... 05.00.24 it's just like one big beer family.. 26 ... BEER IS CELEBRATED DURING THE CITY'S ANNUAL "BEER WEEK" EACH SPRING... 05.04.16 i think one of the big reasons that people move here is for quality of life 23 HERE... THAT "INDEPENDENT THINKING"... IS STILL EVIDENT TODAY... back to our music.... our balloon guy... to tie it all together... IN A CITY... THAT CONTINUES TO DRAW SO MANY.... TO THE MOUNTAINS. music out PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA HAS CERTAINLY BEEN DRAWN TO THE MOUNTAINS... HE'S VISITED ASHEVILLE FOUR TIMES SINCE HIS 2008 CAMPAIGN. AND... HE MAY EVEN RETIRE IN ASHEVILLE. aw it is good to be back in asheville north carolina - cheering- IN JUNE, THE WEBSITE WALL-STREET-CHEAT- SHEET-DOT-COM REPORTED THE PRESIDENT BOUGHT PROPERTY IN THE CITY. THE WHITE HOUSE HAS NOT CONFIRMED THIS, BUT THE PRESIDENT HAS CALLED ASHEVILLE A GREAT SPOT FOR GOLFING... HIKING... FISHING AND GOOD BAR-B-QUE. FROM ASHEVILLE... TO ANDERSON... GREENVILLE TO SPARTANBURG... EACH MAIN STREET IN THE CAROLINAS HAS HAD ITS SHARE OF HARDSHIP AND RENEWAL. THINGS CHANGE WITH THE TIMES... BUT THE LIFE OF OUR COMMUNITIES ALL LEAD TO THE HEART OF A CITY - MAIN STREET. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US FOR CHRONICLE: MAIN STREET CAROLINA. I'M JANE ROBELOT. GOOD NIGHT.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use. WYFF News 4 offers readers the ability to comment on stories with the understanding that these comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or used on WYFF News 4 newscasts. We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, comments that don’t relate to the story, and any personal remarks. THIS IS IMPORTANT: WYFF News 4 does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not, at times, find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. If you find a comment that is objectionable or offensive, click the flag that appears in the upper right corner when you hover over a comment. Flagged comments may be automatically hidden from comment threads. For comments to appear on the website and/or mobile app, email addresses must be verified through Disqus. We ask the community to monitor this forum with the knowledge that WYFF News 4 does not delete posts based on the content. We are glad to offer commenting on our site but we cannot be responsible for people who abuse the privilege.